David Lindsay: A plea for help

David Lindsay, author of A Voyage to Arcturus and other speculative works failed in his lifetime to gain the reputation he deserved. A very small band of folks love his work (You’ll find an excellent site here)

http://www.violetapple.org.uk

The big question for me concerns the manuscript of A Voyage to Arcturus. It was substantially cut by request of the publishers in 1920. In J B Pick’s “Sketch of Lindsay’s Life”: Pick says that Lindsay ‘excised’ around 15000 words. If an author cuts 15000 words from his manuscript it seems inconceivable to me that he would simply throw the text away. What exactly happened to the manuscript? Most of those who could possibly answer this question will no longer be with us but if there is a faint chance that any living relative of Lindsay or Pick or the publishers could answer then I would be grateful if they could contact me with a view to dashing hopes or raising the chance of restoring the full text of a modern masterpiece.